Circular knit hosiery and method of making same



March 5, 1946. B. J. FAUCETTE 2,396,166

CIRCULAR KNIT HOSIERY AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Filed June 28, 1945 "PRE-sHRuNKf' YARNQ YARN RELATIVELY UNSHRUNK AT THE TIME OF KNITTING lNl/ENTOR BEALE JIF'AUCETTE B) /-//.S ATTORNEYS i a tented Man. 5, i546 antennae 'r nosmar AND METHQD or Mac same Beale J. Faucette, New York, N. Y., assignor to Scott 8; Williams, incorporated, Laconia, N. 125., a corporation oi Massachusetts Application June 28, 1945, Serial No. 601,957.

1'1 Claims.

This invention relates to circular knit hosiery I and manipulation of yarns having the shrinking characteristics mentioned.

In the drawing is shown the outline of a stocking in which the product of this invention is embodied, and made in accordance with the method of this invention. The stocking comprises a-top I, which may be either a turned welt or a single thickness top; a leg 2 having an ankle 3; and a foot 4 having a heel 5 and toe B. It is characteristic of the invention that the yarn used in the top is manipulated in a manner different from that used on the yarns in the ankle and foot.

There are various hosiery yarns on the market which have the characteristic of being capable 'of being shrunk and of retaining shrinkage permanently. By permanently I mean during the treatment which the yarn will normally receive in the manufacture and use of the hose. These yarns are synthetic yarns, such for example as the polyamides of the nylon family, the resin known as Saran, "Vinyon and the vegetable fiber known as cellulose acetate. For an example of the invention I will describe a stockin made of nylon and its manufacture, but it should be understood that any synthetic yarn having twist threads.

sired size, and it is therefore necessary to knit the welt wider than the final dimension. Thus, for

example, heretofore if a welt was to be large enough to stretch .to 11%" in width in its final form and was to be made of nylon, it might have had to be knit initially with a width allowing it to stretch to 13" to allow for the shrinkage which occurs during the "setting" or form-finishing operation. Considerable dimculty has been experie enced' in knitting this. extra width in the welt without producing fabric having faults. Among these faults are distorted stitches which are sometimes described as crows feet" or "hen tracks," being unevenness of the stitches due to liveliness of the unshrunk nylon. They are particularly apparent when using light-weight high- The extra width also causes difficulties in pie-boarding the stockings, as the welt fits so loosely on the form that the operator must spend extra time to smooth and position it so that it will shrink evenly, and even then there may be wrinkles in the finished fabric and an permanent shrinkage characteristics comes within the scope of the invention.

Inmaking circular knit stockings of nylon it is customary to use yarn which has not been yarn-set, although it may be twist-set (as those expressions are defined in the Miles Patent humidity as will cause the fabric to shrink and set the yarn. In that way the stocking is set in a shape to which it will return evenafter washing.

In view of this form-finishing operation it is necessary for circular knit hosiery made of nylon or the like to be knit larger than the final deirregular edge on the top of the welt instead of a straight line.

I have discovered that it is possible to produce a nylon circular knit stocking with the necessary difference between the width of the ankle and foot and the width of the welt, and at the same time -to greatly diminish or do away with faults in the fabric of the welt. My invention has certain additional advantages which will be described hereinafter.

As set forth above, nylon yarn prepared for knitting has customarily been shrunkto some extent to set the twist, but I propose to shrink the yarn must more so that it will have received most orpractically all of its possible shrinkage before it is knitted. This may involve giving the yarn itself at least asl'ight amount-of yarn-set (to be 2,295,593), and after the stocking is knit, to put distinguished from setting the twist). Assuming that a welt with a finished stretched width/of 11 is desired, it has heretofore been necessary to knit a welt in theflrst instance which can be stretched to a width of 13", but I have found that it is possible to do .away with the extra inch and a half of stretched width during. the knitting process by treating the yarn prior to knitting. By srinking the nylon yarn to a considerable extent before it is used to knit the welt, I find that a welt knit to stretch to 11 /2" in width will still stretch at least to 11 in width when the stocking is finished. To make this discovery useful to the industry, I disclose that I use'this yarn at the point of greatest width, namely, at the welt or top, but I am careful to use at the ankle and foot a yarn which has not been pre-shrunk. By using this combination of yarns it is possible to have 'a lesser difference between the width of the welt and the width of the ankle and foot while the stocking is being knitted, than will exist in the finished stocking. This makes it possible to have an extra large welt in a finished circular knit stocking without blemishes in the appearance of the stitches in the welt.

It is characteristic of the yarns with which this invention is concerned that they can be shrunk permanently by means of treatment. In the case of nylon this treatment takes the form of exposure of the yarn to humidity and heat. If it is desired merely to shrink the nylon for the welt rather than give it a permanent set, the time of exposure, the temperatureand degree of humidity can be ascertained from the art-see, for example, the above-mentioned patent to John Blanchard Miles, Jr., No. 2,295,593, dated September 15, 1942. If it is desired to set the yarn at the same time that-it is shrunk, then the well-known conditions of time, heat, pres sure and humidity used in form-finishing hosiery made of nylon and which form-finishing operation is known to.the trade as pre-boarding,'can be used on the yarn. Whichever method of preshrinking the nylon is used, the subsequent steps are the same as far as manipulation is concerned.

The pre-shrunk yarn is used in knitting the welt, but the non-pre-shrunk yarn is used in knitting the ankle and foot. Thereafter the stocking is pre-boarded. In this pre-boarding operation, as heretofore the stocking is placed on a form and exposed to steam and pressure. When first placed on the form, the welt, being approximately the width desired in the finished product, will not be very slack on the form. The ankle and foot, however, will be slack,,since they are made of yarn which was not pre-shrunk. The treatment with steam under pressure shrinks the ankle and foot down tothe form and if there is any residual shrinkage left in the pre-shrunk yarn, the welt will be shrunk a small amount, bringing it to size to allow a predetermined stretch. This operation will set any of the nylon shrunk to the full extent that it would have been when the finished stocking was pre-boarded, but that the yarn has also received the set" which it would have gotten during pre-boarding of the stocking. When the yarn is shrunk and set" to this extent it follows that after the stockingvhas been knit, the regular pre-boarding treatdimensions knit of yarn which was not pre yarn which was not theretofore set, in addition to causing the shrinkage just referred to. The difference between the width of the stocking at the ankle and foot and at the welt is now thatv difference desired in the finished stocking, and it will be seen that a full-width welt composed of undistorted stitches, and a narrow, form-fitting ankle and foot, have been obtained.

If it is desired to give the welt yarn a shrinkage which for all practical purposes is complete, the yarn is exposed to conditions of heat and moisture such as used in a pre-boarding operation before knitting is commenced. These conditions are sometimes referred to as consisting of exposing the yarn to steam for a few minutes at approximately 120 to 125 C. If desired, the temperature can be carried a little higher, the primary object being to have conditions which are at least as severe as 'will occur in the subsequent pre-boarding of the entire stocking. In order that the yarn may shrink freely, I prefer to wind it on a split cone which is held in expanded condition while winding. The cone is then removed from the expanding mandrel and put in the pre-boarding retort for about ten minutes. In this way-it will be seen that the yarn is free to shrink uniformly throughout the cone and that the yarn not only will be uniformly shrunk. By pre-shrunk yarn is meant yarn which is shrunk more than is necessary to set the twist before it is knit. It has also been found that nylon yarn which is pre-shrunk does not have the tendency to make distorted stitches- For all these when the welt is knit very wide. reasons it is possible to produce nylon stockings with wider and better-looking Welts than heretofore. This invention also permits the production of an improved seamless fine gauge stocking with an ankle and foot narrowed by shrinking, and a welt of perfect appearance, the ankle and foot being normal or less than normal size and the welt being normal or outsize as desired.

This invention is of particular value in the manufacture of hosiery having the same or a lesser number of needle wales in the welt than in the ankle and foot.

It should be noted that heretofore it has been considered essential to knit nylon circular knit hosiery of yarn which is not pre-set, because of advantages in shaping arising from the preboarding operation. The present invention goes contrary to this practice of the trade and obtains a wide range of new advantages without losing any of the old ones.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my application for patent for Circular knit hosiery and method of making same, filed April 6, 1944, Serial Number 529,777.

I claim:

1. A circular knit article of hosiery in which there are synthetic yarns permanently shrunk, at least the major portion of the shrinkage of such yarns located in the top of the stocking having occurred before knitting and that of such yarnsin the leg after knitting.

2. A stocking formed of synthetic yarn capable of retaining a set and having as many needle wales in the ankle portion thereof as in the top, the top being composed of said yarn which was yarn set before knitting, and the ankle portion being composed of said yarn which was yarn set after knitting,

3. A knitted stocking having as many needle wales in the ankle portion thereof as in the top. said'top being composed of pre-shrunk nylon thread and the ankle portion thereof being composed of nylon thread relatively unshrunk at the time of knitting, the stocking having been preboarded after knitting,

composed of stitches that are smaller than their nae prior to form-finishing.

e. A form-finished article of hosiery knit of a synthetic yarn capable of being permanently shrunk in which the top is composed of stitches thathave retained substantially their size and shape prior to form-finishing, in combination with an ankle composed of stitches that are mailer than their size prior to form-finishing, whereby the difference in size of top and ankle is increased and the top has extra stretch.

7. A pre-boarded article of hosiery knit of nylon in which the top is composedof stitches that have retained substantially their size prior to tire-boarding, in combination with an ankle composed of stitches that are smaller than their size prior to pre-boarding, the stitches of the top diflerlng in shape from the ankle stitches owing to the set of the yarn at the top prior to knitting, whereby the tophas extra stretch.

8. In a method of making circular knit hosiery of synthetic yarn, the steps of pre-shrinking such a yarn, knitting same in a stocking top, knitting a leg portion of yarn which is not pre-shrunk and thereafter permanently shrinking the leg portion, whereby the difference between the dimensions of the top and ankle is increased.

9. In a method of making hosiery of a yarn having the capability of retaining shrinkage, hitting a shrunk yarn in a top of a hose, knitting yarn substantially unshrunk in a leg portion and thereafter shrinking the leg portion, whereby the diflerence between the width ofthe top and the width of the ankle is increased over the condition during knitting.

10. In a method of making nylon hosiery, the

steps of setting the twist in two nylon yarns to different degrees of shrinkage, knitting the reater shrunk yarn into a top of a stocking on a circular knitting machine, knitting a leg portion of the lesser shrunk yam andthereafter formnnishing the entire stocking, whereby the fabrics of the top and the ankle undergo different amounts of shrinkage during said last operation.

11. In a method of making circular knit hosiery, the steps of knitting a top ofa synthetic yarn having one order of shrinkage prior to knitting. knitting an ankle-portion of a synthetic yarn having a different order of shrinkage prior to knitting, and thereafter subjecting the entire stocking to a shrinkage treatment, whereby different amounts of shrinkage occur, with the lesser shrinkage occurring in the top.

12. In a method of making circular knit hosiery, the steps of knitting a top of a synthetic yarn having one order of shrinkage prior to knitting, knitting an ankle portion of a similar yarn havinga lesserorder of shrikage prior to knitting, and thereafter subjecting the entire stocking to a, permanent shrinkage treatment, whereby diiferent amounts of shrinkage occur, with the lesser shrinkage occurring in the top.

13. In a method of making circular knit hosiery, the steps of knitting a welt of a synthetic yarn which has been at least partially shrunk and yarn-set,- knitting the leg of a synthetic yarn which has not been yarn-set, and thereafter submitting the stocking to pre-boarding, whereby extra stretch is obtained in the welt.

14..A' method of forming circular knit hosiery, comprising the steps of shrinking and setting asynthetic yarn, knitting the top of the knitting the leg of the stocking with a synthetic yarn which has been less set and less shrunk, completing the knitting and thereafter submitting the stocking to preboarding, whereby extra stretch is obtained in the there are synthetic yarns permanently shrunk, the yarns located in the welt having been shrunk and set by exposure to a heat and moisture treatment before the stocking was knit and such yarns in the ankle not having been so shrunk and set until after knitting.

16. In a method of making circular knit hosiery of synthetic yarn, the steps of giving such yarn the shrinkage and set caused by exposure to a heat and moisture treatment such as used in a pre-boarding operation, thereafter knitting same into a stocking welt, knitting the leg and ankle of such yarn which had not been so shrunk and set and thereafter pre-boarding the ankle, whereby the diflerence between the dimensions of the welt and ankle is increased.

17. In a method of making circular knit hosiery oi'synthetic yarn, the steps of shrinking and setting such a yarn by exposure to a heat and moisture treatmentsuch as used in pre-boarding while permitting i'ull shrinkage, thereafter knitting same into a, stocking welt, knitting the leg and ankle of such yarn which had not been so shrunk and set and thereafter pre-boarding the ankle, whereby the diflerence between the dimensions of the welt and ankle is increased.

op. 15. A circular knit article of hosiery in which 

